Knowledge Base

This article explains how to troubleshoot a "no boot" situation. It means that the server powers on and the Dell screen appears but when the operating system should be loaded, the error "No Boot Device Available" is displayed and nothing happens. No power and no post issues are explained in this article: Troubleshooting a Server that does not start.

1. Definition

After completing the Power On Self-Test (POST) phase, the server tries to boot a bootable device.A boot device is any piece of hardware that can read or contains the files required for a computer to start. A default bootable media can be select in the BIOS and by default the raid controller card (PERC) will be selected first. Files available in a bootable device (RAID, USB key, DVD, ISO file) contain instructions to start the operating system. When these files cannot be found, the error "No Boot Device Available" is displayed.
Few actions can be performed to check what is not working properly.

2. Manually select the boot device

The first thing to check is which device is selected as the primary boot. To do a quick check please use F11 to launch the manual boot selection.

Restart the system

Press F11 during POST to enter the Boot Manager

Select the correct Hard Disk drive (Virtual Drive), where the OS is installed

Boot from this device

If the system now boots into the operating system, the hardware is fine and there is a boot order conflict in the BIOS settings. The most likely cause for this is that the system is set to boot from CD/DVD and/or USB before the drives, which is a logical setting. To resolve this, just ensure you do not have a USB or CD/DVD inserted into the system.

Note: The Error can be caused by wrong settings in the boot mode, too. An OS installed in UEFI mode cannot boot in BIOS mode and vice versa.

You can change the boot order setting permanently in the System Setup to boot from the drive first. To change this:

Restart the system

Press F2 during system start to enter the System Settings

Change the Boot Sequence in the Boot Settings

Leave the menu via Exit in the upper right corner of the screen

Note: After this, you will require pressing F11 if you wish to boot from a CD/DVD or USB at a later date.

3. Troubleshoot RAID issues

If the server was working properly and without any change, the issue arises, the RAID properties needs to be checked

Checking hard drive status in the PERC BIOS

To check if the hard drive is participating in the RAID array, perform the following steps: a Press Ctrl + N to go to the PD Mgmt (Physical Disk Management) screen and check if any hard drives are offline or missing

On this page, check that the Virtual Disk is online in an optimal state.
More information about How to identify an HDD failure and solve the issue is available in this article.

When the RAID is managing multiple VD, it is important to select which VD has to be presented when the server tries to boot on the raid controller.
The bootable Virtual Disk can be selected on the last tab "CTRL Mgmt". It is important to select the VD where the operating system is installed.